Category Technology

Point 78: Financial Sustainability for Your Business – Christina Shull

1 Comment read Business Practices, Issue 78, Technology

Business sustainability in the piercing industry generally requires financial planning, unless you plan on living with your parents for the rest of your life or you have landed a sugar daddy or mama. Knowing and doing what it takes to keep your finances in order is important. Regardless of whether you are a staff member or the owner of a studio, both positions require a healthy cash flow and good money management skills. I am going to lightly touch on a variety of financial planning topics that apply to everybody in the piercing industry and I encourage you to use this article as a jumping point to explore these topics and start working towards better financial success.

Understanding your cash flow is as important for staff members as it is for business owners, although hourly or salaried employees do have an advantage in this due to having an income that can be more steady and predictable. It is crucial that you truly know how much money is coming in and how much money is going out. The understanding of your income to output is necessary to start budgeting and improving your financial situation. Take the time to estimate what you might spend on various purchasing categories and then compare that to what you ended up spending. You will probably be very surprised to find out how much you really do spend on certain things.

Some examples of different expenses as an individual or business owner can include:

Business:

  • Inventory
  • Piercing supplies
  • Janitorial items
  • Payroll
  • Office supplies
  • Advertising, printing  

Personal

  • Groceries
  • Gas
  • Medical bills
  • Pet care/child care
  • Clothing
  • Entertainment and dining out

Both Personal and Business:

  • Rent
  • Insurance
  • Utilities
  • Loans
  • Telephone
  • Internet

Tracking your current spending habits can be done in a variety of ways. I can tell you from personal experience that the various apps available are easier for tracking personal spending. They are just so much simpler to use than trying to keep track of your spending habits on paper. I have tried a handful of different apps and discuss my two favorites below. There is no excuse for not trying out one or both of these apps, because both are available as free downloads.

Mint: Personal Finance, Budget, Bills & Money – This application is offered by the makers of Intuit and TurboTax, and if you have ever used programs from either company, you know that many of their products are straightforward and easy to use. This program provides a more complete picture of your finances by bringing together your bank accounts, credit cards, bills and investments so you can get an overview of where you are at. There are also some great features such as staying up to date on your credit score (and getting pointers for how to improve it), bill payment reminders (to decrease the likelihood of being late on a payment), and the ability to create budgets. My favorite thing about this program is that you can sync your various financial accounts with Mint, so your financial transactions are automatically updated and you only need to manually enter cash transactions.

Every Dollar: Budget, Manage Money, Track Spending – This application is offered by money management professional, Dave Ramsey, who is one of the leading experts on financial planning for retirement and eliminating debt. This is a great program for budgeting, and I love the ease in which you can view how your monthly spending was planned, compared to how much has been spent and how much is remaining. However, you cannot sync this with your financial accounts unless you pay a $9.99 monthly subscription to EveryDollar Plus. I like the formatting and ease of entering and editing transactions a little more in this program.

Overall, I personally favor the Mint program more due to the free financial account syncing and additional features offered.

Once you have a sense of how much money you are making versus how much you are spending, you can start budgeting. I know budgeting sounds boring, but trust me: it is going to make a world of difference in your financial future. It is easy to casually spend money as things come up. Planning your spending for the month makes it is much harder to randomly spend money, allowing you to strategically cut from one or more categories as necessary. For example: you will be more likely to think twice about blowing a hundred dollars on things you don’t need when you start deducting that amount from your grocery money. When you have the basic budgeting down it is time to start adding in some new expenses that might not be in your current budget. Putting money into a savings account monthly or even bi-weekly is one of the easiest things you can do to start creating short-term financial stability. Having an emergency fund can be vital to staying on track financially if you experience a setback. These emergency savings can keep you from going into debt if you end up with unexpected medical bills, home or auto repairs, sudden unemployment, or any of the other stressful surprises that life can throw your way. When I first started my business, I was hardly paying myself because I invested most of my business income back into my studio. Even then, I started by setting aside $50 a month. Later on,  I bumped it up to $100 a month, which wasn’t missed much from each paycheck even though I was only paying myself a small salary.

Setting aside money for your taxes is another crucial part of your budgeting and planning. Whether we are talking about individual or business taxes, it is a wise decision to set the money aside for when they are due. If temptation to spend the money is too great, there are a handful of ways to minimize the temptation. Increasing the amount of taxes that are deducted from your paycheck is the easiest way to have your taxes paid in full at the end of the year or at least get close. Maybe you’ll even get a return! If the money is taken off your check before you even cash it, you won’t have to worry about the money burning a hole in your pocket. This works well for hourly employees and salaried workers alike, and is very easy to setup and update as needed. Since direct deposit can usually be setup to transfer money into multiple accounts, I personally have my salary automatically deposited into two separate accounts. Every two weeks, one account gets half of my mortgage payment and the other account gets the rest of the money. This allows me to always have money set aside for when my mortgage is due. If you’re doing the math, you’ll realize that I am also able to make one additional full mortgage payment a year on this system, which has a very positive impact on my loan principal, especially early in the agreement. Having money automatically transferred into savings, or into an account for taxes, is a great way to avoid the temptation of spending the money. Talk with your accountant about paying quarterly or even monthly if you are not currently required to do so. This is especially helpful for independent contractors and certain business entities that only need to pay their taxes after the end of the calendar year. These smaller and more frequent payments can feel more manageable and attainable to many people.

Eliminating debt is a big aspect of financial success and happiness. Budgeting and planning is the most effective way to start chipping away at debt. You can find a lot of wonderful and manageable tips on eliminating debt through a wide variety of books and programs. On a very minimal salary, I paid off tens of thousands of dollars of debt that I had acquired before I became a business owner. I was also able to use these techniques to improve my financial situation enough to purchase a home less than two years after I opened my business. There are many different approaches and theories for the best way to pay off debt and these techniques alone could be an entire series of articles.

Want quick suggestions? Create projections and plan accordingly. Don’t let your tax burden at the end of the year be a total surprise that results in scrambling to come up with the money. If you are a business owner, you are most likely required to pay taxes quarterly or monthly, as mentioned above. If you are an independent contractor, you should be planning for when you need to pay your taxes. Talk with an accountant, SCORE mentor, tax advisor, or other professional who can help you figure out how to project your estimated taxes and how to measure the projections throughout the year.

The big finale to this article is a very long and daunting subject that would need much more time to cover extensively. Thankfully, you can attend a course at the 22nd annual APP Conference this year on the subject: “Do Piercers get to Retire? Financial Planning 101 for our Industry.” Retirement planning is crucial in an industry that does not have retirement plans offered commonly as a benefit. I hope to see that change in the future and personally have retirement plans for my studio staff written into my ten year business plan. However, until the industry starts offering retirement plans, it is up to each of us individually to plan for our retirement. I encourage you to sit down with a financial advisor and talk with them about how you can get started investing in your future.

There are plenty of resources available to help you come up with a financially successful plan, including a plethora of information on the internet, investing and financial planning classes, countless books and programs, and various business professionals. Talk with friends and colleagues as well, maybe they have some great ideas and insight that you can adapt. It is never too early to start working towards a brighter financial future!


 

Point 75: Preparing Your Studio For Conference – Julie & April

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The Point Issue 75 Cover

JulieTaylorAprilThomasJulie Taylor & April Thomas
Outreach Committee

If you or other piercers in your studio are going to be at Conference for a week, it is best to take stock of how this will affect your studio as soon as possible. The sooner you do this the sooner you put into place a plan for while you are away.

There are a variety of approaches to determining what will work best in each studio. Communicating with your entire team and making a plan in advance can reduce your anxiety about what is happening in your studio while you’re enjoying your time at Conference.

Body jewelry displayIf most of your staff is going to Conference it could be a time to close the studio and give your tattoo artists a week off. If your entire staff is away, you might consider hiring someone who can answer basic questions and book appointments for you.

It could also be a time to have a guest piercer come into assist your clients while you’re away. If you are not the studio owner, offering to fill the spot with another piercer could be greatly appreciated. APP Member Woodstock Bader, owner/piercer of Crow’s Nest Tattoo, says, “quite simply, we find a piercer we trust to live in our house and [work] at the shop.” Woodstock offers this piercer a guaranteed minimum to ensure they will make money while they cover for him.

Use your social media and email contacts to let your clients know about Conference. Get them excited about your trip, so although they will miss you when you’re gone, they know you will return full of inspiration and knowledge, and in turn they will even support you being gone. APP Member Brian Fowler, owner/piercer of Brand X Piercing, says he lets people know that he will be away for months in advance online as well as when they come in to get pierced. He says that those who stop by when he is away “receive a fancy coupon to entice them to come back.”

If you regularly answer your studio’s emails or other messages, have someone else take this task over, even if they have to refer some questions and troubleshooting to you. Vegas is not the best environment for replying to clients in a timely fashion. Pat Pierce, owner/piercer at Mauve, says he creates an email out-of-office message which “responds to anybody that emails me, stating that I am away with the dates that I am gone, what I am away for, when I will return, and that the reception staff are available.” Pat will also try to look through his messages as time permits so that he is able to respond to any urgent client concerns.

Jewelry displays at APP Conference & Exposition 2015An invaluable way to ensure that your clientele appreciate your absence, is to promote the jewelry you will be returning with. Take special orders for any vendors you only shop with while at Conference. Once you return with your goodies, plan to do things like organize a trunk show and/or update displays to show off the year’s new releases and designs. This is a great way to showcase the designs that may be unique or new to your studio. There’s nothing like sharing your post-Conference glow with your favorite clients!

 

Point 74: In the Office – Caitlin McDiarmid

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The Point - Issue 74

CaitlinMcDiarmidCaitlin McDiarmid
APP Administrator

I’ve been asked to write an article about how technology has changed over the course of my tenure with the Association.

When I first started working for the Association, I worked exclusively on a desktop computer in my home with a phone line, a credit card machine, and a small closet full of supplies and brochure stock.

That is how it remained for many years. During those years we contracted out our Registration Staff (and processes) at Conference and each instructor brought their own computer for their class. It was a great leap forward a few years down the road when we bought laptop computers for both the registration desk and our classrooms.

Back at home in the office I went from a desktop computer to a combination of desktop and laptop computers. Now I work solely on a laptop computer which moves with me whether working in the office, at home, or at Conference.

We have certainly utilized programs such as Cvent for registration in the past few years and have added to the Cvent family of programs with the CrowdCompass app starting last year. These programs have allowed us to register people ourselves, and even have them register themselves onsite. With these advances, we have also been able to compile statistics over a period of years which help us make decisions about each year’s Conference. We’ve gone from stamping cardboard cards, to collecting paper tickets, to bar code scanners, to scanning with smartphones (OnArrival) at our classroom doors. This has made the collection of data in our classes more accurate and streamlined the certificate production process.

However, in the office, software has stayed fairly consistent for us until this year. We have continued to manage our databases exclusively with Excel. As we have grown, this has become increasingly cumbersome. Information is transferred from one spreadsheet to another or maintained on multiple documents, which not only takes a lot of time, but comes with an increased risk of error.

After Conference last year I became frustrated with the problems facing us in the office and the overwhelming amount of time devoted to tasks which I felt could be automated. I did some preliminary research and began pitching the idea of the Association adopting a management system. Jef Saunders was also looking for ways to automate the application process by taking it fully online. While it took a lot of work and we looked at a lot of systems, we were able to narrow it down and select one (with approval of the Board) which we feel very excited about.

I am happy to announce that the APP is on the cusp of implementing an Association Database Management Software system. When fully active, this program will change the way we do our “day to day” work. It will streamline almost all of our office processes, consolidate all our databases into one, provide a structure for committees to work from, establish a member portal where members can access their record, upload documents, pay dues, get member notices, provide an online application process, automate many of our communications, and more!

This is a big undertaking and will result in big changes. At this point in the office pretty much every day, I think to myself “this would be so much easier if the system was already in place.” I was probably about a year later than I should have been with my push for us to look at an overhaul of how we manage things in the office and with our membership documents applications and other matters. I know that Jef also cannot wait for these processes to be fully active. Like with all the projects this will take time; we want to do it right the first time.

The office has already taken its accounting program online. Members are experiencing the benefits by being able to pay their dues directly from their invoices. We see the benefits as those payments get recorded in real time, saving Paul King, Emily (our clerk), and me a lot of data entry. Paul and I can also both work in the program whenever we want, which keeps us from getting too behind on the growing workload.

So while it has taken us 13 years to really change how we handle our daily tasks, our databases, and our office procedures, we ARE doing it this year. I am happy to help steer the Association to this new level of efficiency and growth. I am sure that every member and every potential member will benefit from this new system – this new technology – and the changes that result.

This management software system will change my job. How it will change my job is not yet fully known. I am prepared however to go with the flow and tackle new challenges that come with new systems and any kind of change. I hope that those who are reading this will watch as the Association takes this great leap forward. We encourage our membership to provide feedback on how these changes affect the Association, its members, potential members, and the greater community of the piercing industry.

Point 74: Online Marketing Strategies – Marina Pecorino

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The Point - Issue 74

Marina Pecorino headshotMarina Pecorino
Managing Editor of Content & Statistics

It’s been a while since I have had the chance to browse the internet for piercing shop websites in my spare time; it’s actually fairly intriguing to me. The design of marketing materials has a lot to say about how each shop is choosing to present itself to (potential) clients.

In Issue 73, I shared some tips and tricks for taking portfolio photographs. In this issue, I’m going to get down to business (excuse the pun #sorrynotsorry) talking about online marketing. These days, it’s so easy to get sucked into the glowing screen in front of you without putting it to use as a powerful marketing tool. I’m hoping this article will help make the time you spend online for business more efficient and effective, so you can get back to posting pictures of cats.

For the sake of “print” space, I’m going to assume that most readers already have a basic grasp of marketing on social media. For those of you that feel there’s more to learn, many social media platforms offer a convenient business resource guide: Facebook Business, Instagram Business, Pinterest Business, and Tumblr Business. Some of them also offer forums and communities where business users can discuss their experiences and ask questions. If you have a question about using a particular feature, there are lots of articles available directed at businesses with how-to guides like this beginner’s guide to hashtags.

Like anything else on the internet, a quick search for terms like “Tumblr marketing strategies” or “social media tips for small businesses” will yield innumerable articles with a mix of good and not-so-good information. Here is a small list of my favorite Dos and Don’ts:

  • Humanity—Have a sense of humor and try not to sound mechanical. Clients are less likely to be drawn in by a robotic message. When the media has a personality, clients are more likely to become engaged in the content. Think of those days in the studio when your personality is shining through and your clients are eating it up; the same applies to social media.
  • Diversity—Use a mix of images, videos, and text to share all aspects of your shop with potential and returning clientele. Don’t limit yourself solely to one type of post or one social media platform. Variety in advertising will allow more chances to strike a chord with viewers. Although there is a lot to be said about automation in regards to time management, be careful about repeating the same posts over all your social media platforms. Try to cater the content to the audience and mechanics of the different platforms you’re utilizing.
  • Frequency—Post, share, and interact consistently. It is a valid use of your time to be online at work as long as you are making sure to focus your attention on the business at hand. Dedicate a few minutes of your work day to posting and responding to clients. With certain platforms, like Facebook, you may also choose to dedicate some time to plan and schedule posts for the upcoming week(s), spending an hour or two “in the groove” getting it all out of the way at once.
  • Engagement—Certain types of posts are more likely to get a wider spread of reactions from your audience. Posts with at least one image are more likely to be shared than posts without images. People are more inclined to interact with content that evokes certain emotional responses; awe, laughter, and amusement are the most likely to be shared. Unless you intend to be the epicenter of debate, it is best to stay away from controversial topics, but a well placed poll question or invitation to share a particular post can spread like wildfire. Here are a few bites of food for thought: infographics (graphic depictions of information) and listicles (those clickbait numbered lists everyone loves to hate) are the most widely shared post types. Tuesday is overall the best day to post content.

Hopefully, after reading the points above you have discovered something about social media marketing that you weren’t aware of previously. That means it’s as good a time as any to discuss websites and search engine optimization.

Content diversity in online marketingAlthough websites have the disadvantage of associated cost (web design and development, hosting, domain registration), they have some serious advantages that aren’t as feasible with their no-cost social media counterparts. The main advantage: total control over style and the inner workings. The overall appearance is certainly important if you’re particular about aesthetics, and let’s face it, we’re in the body modification industry; how things look is pretty much our business. More importantly though, total control includes using the elements of web development to make your website easy to find for the clients seeking your services and products; this is essentially the basics of search engine optimization (SEO).

The total number of websites currently on the World Wide Web is mind boggling, and new sites are being added every day. For this reason, search engines need a way to keep track of and catalog what’s available. To do so, search engines send out web crawlers (also known as bots or spiders) to methodically index websites and return information to the search engines about what text and images were found on each website and where those elements were located in the coding. Search engines use this information along with complex algorithms to determine the relevant results for a search, even tailoring the results based on a particular user’s past search history.

Consequently, web developers have learned how to build websites to make pertinent information more available and meaningful for web crawlers, to improve the chance that their site will have a high ranking in relevant searches. Search engines often provide guides on improving SEO, but information about the algorithms used are generally kept secret to reduce exploitation by dishonest developers.

There are now more services available than ever to make web development possible for beginners. Here are a few tips to help you along the way:

  • Be honest with what you’re advertising. Despite what the name would imply, SEO isn’t about catering your website to the search engines, but more about using web development tools to maximize the number of clients that find you by looking for what you’re offering. By implying a level of service or product that the client won’t find upon arrival, you’re bound to end up with frustrated visitors writing bad reviews, rather than lifelong clientele. Therefore, it’s incredibly important to be honest on your site about what your business has to offer; phrase and brand your web presence for the clients you want, but be realistic.
  • Text is important. With the exception of intentionally hidden content (credential information, duplicate content, etc.), all text on a website is indexed by crawlers. Some of this text is seen by viewers, but sites also contain a lot of text that is only visible when looking at the source code. These elements only visible when looking at the coding—like meta tags, keywords, alt text on images—are important tools for developers to provide additional information to be crawled. There are numerous tools online to help you choose text that will attract a broad audience, like this free keyword tool with daily approximations of data, broken down by search engine and demographic information. These types of tools take some of the guesswork out of choosing what text is best to draw the most appropriate audience.
  • Images have become more powerful than ever before. Search engines have evolved to the point that images are now being indexed, allowing users to do a search for particular type of picture, much like searching for a specific set of words or answer to a question. When your smartphone or digital camera creates an image, it assigns the image a generic filename like “IMGfivebazllion.jpg”. Renaming photos with something more descriptive and enticing like “Opal-Rose-Gold-Philtrum-Piercing.jpg” will assist web crawlers in identifying the photograph. Just make sure that the filename you choose accurately describes the image. Web developers also have the ability to add alt text, also known as alternative text, in case the image can’t be loaded. Using descriptive terms in the filename and alt text will improve the chance of your image showing up in a relevant search, but it also allows users to get an idea of the subject matter in the image in cases when the image isn’t visible.
  • Make your site as easy to navigate as possible. A sitemap is essentially a blueprint of your website (generally set up in a hierarchical format), showing where certain types of information are housed on the site. It is common for web developers to make their sitemap—much like a writer composes an outline—before generating site content. Deciding the format and organization ahead of time allows a developer to determine the best layout for a website, so that similar content is together and that important information is easy to find. Once a sitemap is set up, developers essentially have a cheat sheet of which individual pages of a site will need to be built (portfolio, pricing information, aftercare, etc.) and how those individual pages will relate to one another. Properly utilizing internal links, breadcrumbs, and sitemaps will assist search engines in understanding your site’s navigation and help your viewers find what they’re looking for.
  • Duplicate information will bog down viewers and bots. The proper and consistent use of internal links throughout a website can make a huge impact on the user’s experience and ability to navigate the site. Web developers use anchor text (this article is full of anchor text) to link text between pages or to reference outside sources rather than duplicating information. It’s best to use single words or short phrases for anchor text; these words or phrases should provide a preview (or keyword) of what the link will contain. As an example, if a shop wants to include a link to a blank copy of their piercing waiver, it would be best to use the words “piercing waiver” as the anchor text. Avoid using ambiguous anchor text in sentences like “a copy of our piercing waiver can be found here” with the anchor text being “here”.

As I mentioned before, search engines use complex algorithms to take all of the elements (included the ones listed above) of a website and determine how relevant it is to a user’s search. Unfortunately, there are dishonest web developers who know these tricks and will manipulate them to increase the ranking of their sites, even with searches that may not be relevant. This is precisely why search engine penalties are used to counteract potential misuse. One of these penalties, particularly common for beginners, is known as keyword stuffing. This is when a web developer crams as many keywords into an element as possible. This isn’t generally done maliciously, but in an attempt to reach all possible audiences; I have to admit that I was guilty of this early on. Instead of using “gauge”, “plug” and “stretched lobe jewelry” as keywords for the same entry, it’s best to choose one term that is likely to reach a wide audience, while encouraging appropriate language. It’s also a great idea to diversify terms where possible, only reusing the most important. If a particular site is especially spammy or dishonest, it can even be de-indexed, meaning that it no longer appears in search results. Avoid these penalties by being conscientious during development and do research throughout the process.

The topic of online marketing is certainly not a simple one and is not something that can be learned from a single article. I have tried to provide you with a quick overview, but there is much more to learn, even on the topics introduced here. Throughout this article, I have provided additional resources, but there is far more information available, like this basic website term glossary. We have the advantage of infinite access to instructional websites and tutorials available to explain the basics and more advanced techniques involved in online marketing and web development. Instructional websites like these are where I have collected my knowledge over many years. If all this talk of tutorials has you excited and ready to learn, here’s a great resource of free web dev tutorials. I encourage you to dive in and enjoy the adventure. The greatest feature of a website is that it can be developed over time, starting off simple and small, and building into something full of information, images, and content to make your clients excited to come visit your shop.

Point 74: From the Editor – Marina Pecorino

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The Point - Issue 74

Marina Pecorino headshotMarina Pecorino
Managing Editor of Content & Statistics

I initially struggled to come up with direction for this editorial, partly because I feel that I’m somewhat of an outsider. I’m connected to the industry, obviously, but for now, I live my days in corporate America. On an issue geared toward technology in the industry, my brain immediately jumped to marketing, as this was one of my primary business roles during my time as a piercer. Honestly though, I think the biggest impact technology has for me currently is allowing me to connect so easily with all of you.

Throughout my life, I’ve found it difficult to stay in touch with friends when there is physical distance; I have great intentions, but my follow through can be lacking. Social media allows communication with my distant friends to become seamlessly integrated into my day-to-day life. I can now feel connected and do my introverted “lurk and like” while allowing people I care about to do the same.

Recently, I was trying to explain to my partner how supportive and appreciative the volunteer family is, even though many of us have only met in person a handful of times, if that. We’re not a daily face to face interaction in each other’s lives, but we still feel like family. I believe this to be true throughout the body modification community, which is one of the things I love most about having chosen this path. In many ways, my continued involvement in the industry is made possible because of the technology we have at our disposal.

It amazes me to realize that, as a result of my involvement with this industry, I’ve developed friendships with awe-inspiring people all over the world. Unfortunately, the last year seems to have dealt a lot of hard blows to our community. Having friends that span the far reaches of the globe can be extremely tough when someone is going through a particularly hard experience, and all I want to do is give them a hug. Technology makes connecting over these vast distances a little less difficult and allows us to show our support, even when physical proximity isn’t possible.

I have to admit that this editorial started out as a quick comment in the APP volunteers group, while curled up in bed. I only got a few words in, when I suddenly realized that what I wanted to express is my appreciation for the chance to feel so close, despite being so far away. What started as a quick comment, ended up evolving into a rough draft for an editorial. It’s pretty incredible what you can create with technology.

Point 74: From the Editor – Kendra Jane B

1 Comment read Editorial, From the Editor, Issue 74, Social Media & Safe Piercing, Technology
The Point - Issue 74 - cover

Kendra Jane headshotKendra Jane Berndt
Managing Editor of Content & Archives

We are in a world where we double tap dozens of times a day, use our smart devices to track the most minute details of our days, and start to sweat at the thought of no wifi. In a relatively short amount of time our industry has embraced technology. We as piercers know what an important role social media and technological advances have on our jobs. As someone that has been given the good fortune of being able to reach many of my peers on a regular basis; I want to take this opportunity to hopefully provide you all with for some food for thought. A few “rules” if you will to navigate the waters of the tech ocean we are all trying to stay afloat in.

To be engaged in ones work, ones passion to apply oneself fully and wholly is an amazing thing. This used to mean spending hours pouring over books, old letters, even microfiche, or (yikes) actually talking to people. The art of the spoken word is no longer what it was. The internet has made so much possible. With information a click away, one can fulfill every need and want for knowledge in seconds enabling our passions to ignite and take off. The flip side to this 24/7 access to internet anonymity (you can become someone you are not, omit the parts of your person at will, or remain completely anonymous) is that the rules of social engagement seem to be faltering; no tone or body language to accompany it. In this issue, you’ll find an article by Miro Hernandez explaining how to put your best foot forward while communicating online.

When I was younger my mom often told me if I had nothing nice to say I was to say nothing at all. As much as it may pain me, I have to admit my mom was right. This statement has saved feelings from being hurt, friendships from being ruined, and embarrassing things from happening. Inevitably, we all face some form of negative online criticism in our professional lives. Courtney Jane Maxwell has shared some tips to help you stay cool and collected when dealing with a bad review on a social media platform.

We live in a world where we are force fed the idea that more is better. I firmly and truly believe moderation is the key, not just when it comes to the donuts I eat or the coffee I drink, but very importantly in the social media I use. I choose to be choosey which means I do not use every type of new and fancy social media that pops up. I do not snap, tweet, and in fact I do not spend the same amount of time tumbling or booking that I used to. I have chosen the types of technology that work best for me and I make them work as effectively and efficiently as possible. This means that as much as technology has become part of every facet of my day to day life, it is not my life from day to day.

Read on to see how technological advances have helped to make our industry safer for clients and piercers alike; how the etiquette of more formal times in the past still have a place in our conversations on the internet today, and don’t forget to double tap and share this publication.

Point 74: From the Editor – Jim Ward

1 Comment read Editorial, From the Editor, Issue 74, Technology
The Point - Issue 74

Jim Ward headshotJim Ward
Art Director

One of the joys of having been a part of this industry since its beginning has been seeing the technological advances that have brought it to such an astounding degree of professionalism.

Young piercers have no idea what things were like when Gauntlet was born in 1975. For starters, imagine a world without the cell phone, personal computer, and the internet. As the old cigarette commercial said, “You’ve come a long way, baby.”

When I first began my piercing business, I had to use a pressure cooker to sterilize instruments, later graduating to ever more sophisticated autoclaves. With the advent of the Statim, you are now blessed not only with more reliable sterilization, but are able to accomplish it within mere minutes.

The first piercing needles were veterinary hypodermics with the syringe couplings cut off. We sterilized and reused them over and over while they became duller with every use and often had to be used with a needle pusher. Nowadays, you have access to disposable needles that are so sharp they pierce the toughest of tissue like butter.

Even though I made every effort to provide the highest quality body jewelry, in those early days we had little understanding as to which materials were most suitable for the purpose of piercing. The industry is now blessed with an abundance of jewelry choices produced to the most stringent of manufacturing standards.

Many of you are familiar with Gauntlet’s publication Piercing Fans International Quarterly (PFIQ). Thanks to the personal computer and the marvel of desktop publishing, I’ve been able to say goodbye to the typewriter, the T­square, the drafting board, and all the art supplies that were used for years to produce the magazine. With a few mouse clicks, design and layout has become a breeze.

Technology is here to stay, and will continue to benefit our profession. I only hope that one day human kindness and compassion will catch up.

On another subject, for the last several issues of The Point I have participated as one of the Managing Editors. With this issue my title changes and I become the publication’s Art Director. I will still be an occasional Contributing Editor, and while I’m busy doing the layout and design, I get to edit the editors.

Over time I also hope to be able to bring some fresh design ideas to these pages. Enjoy!

Point 73: Portfolio Photography: Tips & Tricks – Marina Pecorino

1 Comment read Issue 73, Social Media & Safe Piercing, Technology

Point-70-From-the-Editor-Marina-0.jpgMarina Pecorino
Managing Editor of Content & Statistics

In the grand scheme, our industry is young, but in reference to how we display our portfolios there has been quite a bit of progress throughout our short history. During the inception of the modern piercing movement, piercers displayed their work selectively in printed photographs, which resulted in a lag between when a piercing was performed and when it was available to showcase. The range of viewing audience was also much smaller as a result of this medium and its reliance on a physical print.

As the internet became more accessible, shops were able to use websites to display their collective works. Websites like BMEzine came into being, allowing piercers to reach a broader audience, beyond the bounds of geography. However, until digital photography became affordable and readily available, this medium was still limited by the lag and expense of developing film and scanning photographs.

Source: Saint Sabrina's
Source: Saint Sabrina’s

Modern digital photography has reached a level where decent digital cameras are built into every smartphone, and standalone digital cameras are widely available. Social media allows us to quickly reach an audience around the world. We hold these sophisticated marketing tools in our pockets, purses, and fanny packs every day, but do we know how to implement them to their fullest potential?

This will be a two part instructional article to help you make the most of these tools. In this first edition, I’ll touch on some tricks and tips for shooting portfolio photographs. In Issue 74, I’ll explain some ways to make sure those photographs have as broad a reach as possible, using the tools allowed through current social media and search engine optimization.

And now on to the good stuff! I hope that you find these quick techniques and tricks useful in displaying your work to the world.

Source: Dorje Adornments
Source: Dorje Adornments

• Variety—Don’t get drawn into only taking photographs of your favorite types of piercings or jewelry styles. Strive to show the full range of options available within your studio and the diversity of your clientele. Showing a mix of gender, race, age, and style helps make your portfolio relatable to a broader range of your clients and allows your potential client an opportunity to visualize themselves and their new or upgraded adornment within your portfolio.

• Composition—Your photograph is intended to display your superb piercing technique and the incredible, high polished jewelry you’ve used, so make sure that these are the main focal point. Frame collages have become popular and allow you to show the piercing from multiple angles. These are a great way to show a close up and distant view (with a smiling, happy client, maybe?), and can be especially useful in displaying symmetrically paired piercings.

• Distance and Zoom—When zooming in on your subject within your digital camera, image quality loss is irreversible. Therefore you should avoid using the digital zoom, which may leave your image looking pixelated and distorted. It is far better to take a step or three closer to your client to take advantage of the natural optics of the lens. If necessary, crop the image after the fact to get rid of extraneous or distracting aspects or achieve a closer view. That being said, be careful not to get “too close”. This can make the viewer feel uncomfortable and the piercing will lose some of its impact without the rest of the anatomy as a frame of reference.

• Focus—If a photograph is out of focus, avoid using it, regardless of how in love with it you may be. An out of focus image will not tell the viewer much about the health of a piercing or quality of the jewelry used. Using a shallow depth of field (choose a large aperture close to f/2.8, for the photography geeks in our midst) to blur the background can be useful if you’re shooting photographs in a visually busy environment. If you forgot to use this setting while taking the photograph, post-processing software like Photoshop, Lightroom, Affinity, Exposure, or photography apps on your smartphone can accomplish this after the fact as well. If you have the option, try using a minimalistic or subtle background, but still aim for some color and texture when possible.

• Lighting—If you have the environment available to take portfolio photographs outside or close to a window, choose a spot that is well-lit by indirect sunlight. Unrestrained direct sunlight can cause harsh shadows and loss of detail in highlights. If you’re shooting in a windowless room, positioning multiple light sources with natural spectrum light bulbs can simulate indirect sunlight. If you’re shooting with a DSLR, using a bounce flash directed at a white wall behind you can help evenly illuminate your client and their beautiful jewelry. Regardless of your lighting, watch out for unintentional shadows near eyes, noses, and chins.

• Color Balance—Using natural spectrum lighting is a great start to provide the truest colors for jewelry and the healthiest skin tones for your clients, but color correction can be done in post-production with most photography processing software and apps, like the ones mentioned earlier. Be careful about color balance; aim to make your whites as true as possible. Photographs with a greenish or yellowish hue may cause your client to look sickly. A reddish hue may cause your client to look flushed. If your camera has an option for white balance, set it appropriately based on your environment or take multiple photos with the white balance set a few different ways.

• Quality of Work—Avoid including angry, bloody, or otherwise unappealing piercings; happily healed piercings should make up the vast majority of your portfolio. If you are not pleased with the angle or placement, or if the perspective of the photo makes it look like something is wonky, choose a different photo or piercing. Your portfolio does not need to include every piercing you’ve performed or every photograph you’ve taken. It should be a selection of your very best work and it should show that the piercings you perform will heal well and elegantly accentuate the anatomy that surrounds them.

Source: Cold Steel
Source: Cold Steel

Point #73: President’s Corner – Brian Skellie

2 Comments read Issue 73, Medical, President's Corner, Sterilization, Technology
Brian Skellie working with asepsis

Brian Skellie headshot at 2014 APP conference by April BerardiBrian Skellie
APP President

The APP is always going to be a work in progress, since standards are ever changing with new evidence. Lauded among the guiding principles we maintain as safety standards for our membership is the practice of asepsis. We refer to many procedural acts as practice, as they are rarely ever perfect and require a profound theoretical understanding coupled with regular exercise and critical self observation for improvement. Asepsis requires the right combination of cleaning and sterilization with touching and not touching manual, instrumental and environmental surfaces for infection prevention and control (IPC).

We apply two types of asepsis to reduce or eliminate infection transmission: medical asepsis which emphasizes protection for the client and their environment is more concerned with cleanliness and prevention of the spread of the clients own organisms to other clients, while surgical asepsis which focuses on sterilization and maintaining sterility for items that will be introduced to a wound or piercing cavity or penetrate the skin, thus preventing the introduction of organisms to the client. Medical asepsis can be referred to as clean technique, and surgical asepsis as sterile technique. A thorough and effective means of surgical asepsis should be implemented for all body art procedures. [CE resource]

“Sterile technique is not one set-in-stone method, this is a guideline for establishing your own individual technique.” Nor is it advocating precautions beyond what our sort of minimally invasive ear piercing procedures require for antisepsis and sterility. For those who are curious to learn more about Maximum Sterile Barrier precautions, the CDC HICPAC describes further steps that can be taken for more seriously invasive punctures such as a central venous or arterial catheter. For body artists, an achievable version of surgical asepsis (sterile technique) maintains barriers such as sterile gloves, masks and eye protection, and removes obstacles likely to compromise these barriers such as hanging earrings and necklaces, long hair, rings and watches.

“I think that when you say ‘aseptic technique,’ a lot of people automatically think ‘operating room’ or ‘surgical procedure,’” explains Kathleen Meehan Arias, MS, CIC, president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) and director of Arias Infection Control Consulting LLC. “That’s rightly so because that is where the bulk of it is. But whenever you are doing anything that bypasses the skin barrier, you should automatically think aseptic technique.” — Applying Aseptic Technique in all Clinical Settings

This outline of technique suggestions comes from the AORN, APIC and CDC standards and recommended practices as well as a number of textbook resources such as Asepsis, the Right Touch. Much of it needs very little interpretation for our purposes. Safety precautions should result in greater control of the procedure, clinical benefits, reduced harm, and limited liability for negligence.

Rationale: There exist standards for prevention of surgical site infection that apply to even minor invasive elective procedures, and piercing falls within this category by definition.

“When implemented, these guidelines should reduce the risk of disease transmission in the piercing environment, from piercee to piercer, and from piercee to piercee. Based on principles of infection control, the document delineates specific guidelines related to protective attire and barrier techniques; handwashing and care of hands; the use and care of sharp instruments and needles; sterilization or disinfection of instruments; cleaning and disinfection of environmental surfaces; disinfection and the decontamination room; single-use disposable items; the handling of previously worn piercing jewelry; disposal of waste materials; and implementation of recommendations.”— Piercing Experience adapted IPC standards from the CDC

My personal observation is that these policies have helped limit risk at my studio. They have been reviewed by legal counsel, qualified bioscientists, medical professionals, and university professors. That said, I’m sure that they could always use more input and adaptation. Body art safety is an ever-evolving field of interest.

One might say there is no single right way to pierce. Many variations are possible with an understanding and application of asepsis. We are an industry in which studios market based on their specialties, and for some that is participation in continuing education, gaining knowledge, and raising standards. Maintaining a positive tone one can show those as strengths without diminishing others. This is crucial to developing the bonds between us as fellow professionals. If you believe something you do has advantages, feel free to share that with your customers in a way that does not end up overly critical of our other colleagues.

2013 APP Procedure ManualIt should be clear that these position statements in support of surgical asepsis are neither contradictory nor accusatory of others currently using APP minimum standards for medical asepsis according to our 2013 revised Procedure Manual. They build upon them as we are all encouraged to do as Members, employing additional precautions and elective limitations based on evidence and strong theoretical rationale. My preference is to demonstrate best practices as an educator instead of the minimums. If we all did no more than what was required, the industry would not be as interesting.

I believe that it is the responsibility of each of us to uphold the values we feel are important, and to continually advance our standards in order to achieve our goals. I do have romantic hopes that over time the industry will move in the direction of pure, validated, ethical materials and practices that are as harmless as possible. A predictable, consistent, safe, simple, and gentle piercing experience is attainable today and can be refined based on these principles and open communication among colleagues. The recommendations that I make in addition to APP minimums result from a continually researched process of elimination and adaptation, and they are freely shared for peer review. Please consider this a formal request for comments.